Russia's undersea naval activity is at record levels, and NATO is worried about a crucial lifeline to the world

Russian nuclear submarine Dmitry Donskoy sails under the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark on its way to Saint Petersburg, July 21, 2017.

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Scanpix Denmark/Sarah Christine Noergaard via Reuters

The US and NATO have noted increasing Russian naval
activity around Europe in recent years.

That activity, particularly the submarine component,
has sparked concern about the vulnerability of undersea cables
connecting the global economy.

NATO and the US have responded, bolstering forces at
sea and anti-submarine warfare efforts and shifting NATO
commands.

Russian undersea naval activity in the North Atlantic has reached
new levels, and NATO is worried that the undersea cables
connecting North America and Europe and the rest of the world are
being targeted.

"We are now seeing Russian underwater activity in the vicinity of
undersea cables that I don't believe we have ever seen," US Navy
Rear Adm. Andrew Lennon, commander of NATO's submarine forces,
told The Washington Post.
"Russia is clearly taking an interest in NATO and NATO nations'
undersea infrastructure."

Moscow's subs appear to be interested in the privately owned
lines that stretch across the seabed, carrying insulated
fiber-optic cables. The cables are strewn across the world's
oceans and seas, carrying 95% of communications
and over $10 trillion in daily transactions.

Blocking the flow of information through them could scramble the
internet, while tapping into them could give eavesdroppers a
valuable picture of the data flowing within. The cables are
fragile and have been damaged in the past by ships' anchors,
though usually in areas were repairs are relatively easy.

Air Chief Marshal Stuart Peach, the UK's defense
chief, has also sounded alarm about Russia's
apparent focus on the undersea cables. "There is a new risk to
our way of life, which is the vulnerability of the cables that
criss-cross the seabeds," he said earlier this month.

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AP/FRANCK PREVEL

Lennon's and Peach's warnings are only the latest about Russian
undersea activity in the vicinity of important underwater
infrastructure.

The New York Times reported in late 2015 that increased
Russian naval activity near the lines led US military officials
to fear Moscow planned to attack the cables in the event of
conflict. US officials said they had seen elevated Russian
operations along the cables' routes in the North Sea and
Northeast Asia and even along US shores.

Many undersea cables are in familiar places, but others,
commissioned by the US for military purposes, are in secret
locations. US officials said in 2015 that increased
Russia undersea activity could have been efforts to locate those
cables.

There was no sign at that time that any cables had been
cut, and Lennon declined to tell The Post if the defense
bloc believed Russia has touched any of the undersea
lines.

But elevated Russian undersea activity comes as NATO
members and other countries in Europe grow more concerned about
what they see as assertive Russian activity on the ground, in the
air, and at sea around the continent.

Russian planes have had numerous near-misses with
their NATO counterparts over the Baltics in recent months, and
Russia's massive Zapad 2017 military
exercises in Russia and Belarus during September had NATO on
edge.

A force multiplier

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The crew of the Varshavyanka-class diesel submarine during the Victory Day parade in Vladivostok, Russia, May 9, 2015.

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REUTERS/Host Photo Agency/RIA Novosti

Moscow has also pursued naval expansion, with a focus on undersea
capabilities. A modernization program announced in 2011 directed more money
toward submarines, producing quieter, more lethal designs. Moscow
has brought online or overhauled 13 subs since 2014, according to The Post.

Among them was the Krasnodar, which Russian officials
boasted could avoid the West's most sophisticated radars. US and
NATO ships tracked the Krasnodar intently
this summer, as it traveled from Russia to the Black Sea,
stopping along the way to fire missiles into Syria. More advanced subs are reportedly
in production.

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Russian attack submarine Krasnodar, seen in the North Sea in early May 2017.

Subs are seen by Moscow as a force multiplier, as rivals
would need to dedicate considerable resources to tracking just
one submarine.

Subs are also able to operate without being seen, to carry
out retaliatory strikes, and to threaten resupply routes,
allowing them to have an outsize impact.

Russia now fields 60 full-size subs, while the US has 66,
according to The Post.

Adding to Russia's subsurface fleet are deep-sea research
vessels, including a converted ballistic missile sub that can
launch smaller submarines.

"We know that these auxiliary submarines are designed to
work on the ocean floor, and they're transported by the mother
ship, and we believe they may be equipped to manipulate objects
on the ocean floor," Lennon told The Post.

Russian officials have also touted their fleet's increased
operations.

In March 2017, Adm. Vladimir Korolev, commander of the Russian
navy, said the Russian navy in 2016
"reached the same level as before the post-Soviet period, in
terms of running hours."

"This is more than 3,000 days at sea for the Russian submarine
fleet," Korolev added. "This is an excellent sign."

'Those ships are vulnerable to undersea threats'

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A Dutch helicopter participates in NATO's Dynamic Mongoose anti-submarine exercise in the North Sea off the coast of Norway, May 4, 2015.

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REUTERS/Marit Hommedal/NTB Scanpix

Western countries have also pursued their own buildup in
response.

While US plans call for curtailing production of Virginia-class
attack subs when Columbia-class missile subs begin
production in the early 2020s, a recent study found that the
Navy and industry can produce two Virginia-class subs and one
Columbia-class sub a year - averting what Navy officials have
described as an expected submarine shortfall in the mid-2020s and
keeping the fleet ahead of near-peer rivals like Russia and
China.

The US is looking to sensors, sonar, weapons control,
quieting technologies, undersea drones, and communications
systems to help its subs maintain their
edge. (Government auditors have said the Columbia-class
subs will need more testing and development to avoid delays and
cost overruns down the line, however.)

The response extends to tactics as well. US and NATO
personnel have dedicated more time to anti-submarine-warfare
training and operations. Transponder data shows that the US Navy
has in recent months flown numerous sorties over areas where
Russian subs operate, according to The Post.

"It is an indication of the changing dynamic in the world
that a skill set, maybe we didn't spend a lot of time on in the
last 15 years, is coming back," Capt. Jim McCall, commander of
the air wing on aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, told The Wall
Street Journal this fall.

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US Navy personnel aboard USS Viksburg participating in NATO's Dynamic Mongoose anti-submarine exercise in the North Sea off the coast of Norway, May 4, 2015.

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REUTERS/Marit Hommedal/NTB Scanpix

As the number of sub-hunting ships that can patrol the
North Atlantic, Baltic, and Mediterranean has fallen since the
Cold War, NATO members are working to deploy more air and sea
assets. This summer, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and
Turkey signed a letter of intent to start development of
new submarine-detecting aircraft.

The number of frigates - typically used for anti-submarine
warfare - in use by NATO allies has fallen from about 100 in the
early 1990s to about 50 today, prompting the US to rush to field more in
the coming years.

Attention has also returned to the North Atlantic choke
point between Greenland, Iceland, and the UK. The GIUK Gap was a
crucial element of Cold War naval defenses, and US anti-submarine
planes were based in Iceland for decades before leaving in
2006.

The US Navy has been upgrading hangers in Iceland
to accommodate new P-8A Poseidon aircraft, however, and the
Pentagon has said the US and Iceland have
agreed to increase rotations of the US surveillance planes there
next year.

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US Navy crew members on a P-8A Poseidon assist search-and-rescue operations for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean, March 16, 2014.

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US Navy

As the Russian navy seeks to reverse the contraction it
experienced after the Cold War, NATO too is looking to expand its
commands after shrinking in the years since the fall of the
Soviet Union.

A recent NATO internal report found that the alliance's
rapid-response abilities had "atrophied since the end of the Cold
War" and recommended setting up two new commands to
streamline supply efforts.

One, based on the continent, would oversee the movement of
personnel and material in Europe, and the other, potentially
based in the US, would oversee transatlantic resupply efforts and
the defense of sea lanes.

"If you want to transport a lot of stuff, you have to do
that by ship," Lennon, NATO's submarine commander, told The Journal this fall.
"And those ships are vulnerable to undersea threats."

Plans for the new commands were approved in early November.
More details are expected in February, though current plans
include embedding the NATO
North Atlantic command with US Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk,
Virginia.

"We are a transatlantic alliance, and we must therefore be in a
position to transport troops and equipment over the Atlantic,"
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said recently. "For that we
need secure and open seaways."